So I did some reading and talking in chat and got some help from some insomniacs. Thanks Sage and Dan. It's not quite there but here's the basic idea I whittled out, followed. I'm tired, so outline followed by the background as it is right now. There will be redundancy, sorry. Baron is an interesting place.

I haven't thought of a name yet... need to be more focused for that.
Race: Human
Gender: Female

Outline: Suffering from amnesia, severe case with a loss of the ability to speak Common ( err... maybe this point will be cleared up soon or backstoried away, but it was the entire seed of the character, the struggle to communicate ).
Baron born and bred not sure which city though... maybe Aegir
Merchant family of moderate wealth
Afforded an education level such wealth provides
along with the general education, swordsmanship specifically longsword.
amnesia caused by family member in part of possible power play to take over the business.
Day 1 of the blank slate would find her somewhere around that capital of capitals, Doma.

Anyway here's the part where I flesh it out more... except I was sleepy and uh... well... I hope this whole thing is ok.

***
So, once there was a swordsman named ----- who came from ----- in Baron. Her family were merchants who traded various goods and were moderately well off. She was given a good education in the math and literature, the arts and sciences, and swordplay. A defenseless merchant is a robbed merchant. Her mom and dad were firm but loving. Her father was running the company, chosen by her grandfather over her uncle who was older. But then, he was always a bit off eh? Well, not really... she remembers him being nice when she was a child... doing magic tricks for her and her older brother.

While she was doing well in her schooling, her brother was doing poorly in health matters.
He had been sickly since an early age when his family were caught in a storm off the coast of Baron on their way home from a business meeting/vacation.

As her brotherâ€™s health deteriorated, it became clear that he might never be able to take over the business. So she was named the heir, an idea to which she felt mixed feelings at best.

Her uncle, did not agree with this idea. So he set about using his magerly powers to do some dastardly deeds. So long story short, family is in a state of uncertainty and ----- is no where to be found.

For her end, she wakes up in some woods, with a big headache and a feeling that something is missing...

Something is missing, all her memories, itâ€™s the big amnesia, but not only is she without a clue to her past, apparently whatever caused the memory loss also rendered her unable to speak common.

***

So I kind of sped along toward the end... Unfortunately AIM crapped out on me so I lost my brainstorming with Sage and Dan and had to go from memory... I had said I didn't want to make her angsty, but I don't know if I succeeded. But anyway, angst isn't just about the past, it's about the future, right?

Edit: Capntastic asked me if she has amnesia "why would we know all this stuff?"
The answer is that really these are notes for me, so that the character has something to remember, instead of being just a blank slate for real.

HP looks like it should be 65 (55+Sta*5), but the rest of the math looks right so far. Also, I would type the base stats for skills in as [stat/stat/stat] instead of <stat> just because this board seems to only show one of the stats when you put it in the second way.

As for AT/PA, it's best to list the modified score seperately so that the base score will be readily viewable.

Edit: Capntastic asked me if she has amnesia "why would we know all this stuff?" The answer is that really these are notes for me, so that the character has something to remember, instead of being just a blank slate for real.

Capntastic can say what he likes, but even if she doesn't know what happened to her, the sheet is the place where such things are noted unless it's a truly horrific spoiler for a plot or something.

That said, I'd actually like to know a bit more about her amnesia. You noted that you did get pressed for time/inspiration toward the end, but that also means that you sped through the most interesting part, and the one that's had the greatest effect on her life so far. I'd like more info on that whenever you get the chance.

Also, her sheet looks fairly solid, and she's a pretty balanced character. I would like to note that this means she's fairly good at a lot of things, it'll be harder for her to be great at any one thing or even any one set of things. The point-spreading isn't an issue if it's intentional, and for all I know you might just be afraid of min-maxing, which is also totally reasonable. I will say that she will have a greater chance to excel if you focus in one or two things for her, since at this rate she'll have a hard time distinguishing herself system-wise. Depends a lot on what you want her to do. I'd tell you to catch me on AIM sometime, but Ye Olde Computar is on the fritz at the moment. Best suggestion I can give is to settle on something. Do you want her to be strong? Fast? Able to dodge incoming missiles or leap tall buildings at a single bound?

For example. If you want her to be a STR-based fighter, it would probably be helpful to take that point out of MAG (since MAG 1 doesn't get you much and you can't increase it) and put it in STR. Or you could take a point out of AGI and put it there.

If you want her to be more dextrous, a longsword would be a tough weapon choice for her, but doable. In that case I'd recommend taking a point out of STR and potentially one from STA.

In either case, upping her COU will help her a lot, and you'll note that in both cases it might be helpful to take that point out of MAG and use it elsewhere.

If any of these things conflict with the concept you've got brewing, you're totally free to ignore them. I just wanted to end with a few suggestions for you to play with and check over. If you need any more Philsys help, you can ask a whole pack of people about it. Archmage, Nama, Shini, and Bes come to mind. There are also others, and if they've slipped my mind they should quit sucking and volunteer to cover my ass.

All in all, good to see you trying out Philsys. Be sure to poke someone if you need their help, and I'll be watching the thread to see what the finished sheet looks like. Seems like it'll be pretty keen.

Kai wrote:Capntastic can say what he likes, but even if she doesn't know what happened to her, the sheet is the place where such things are noted unless it's a truly horrific spoiler for a plot or something.

Hey, it was just a question that came up while trying to know a bit more about the amnesia. My general message was "Super hi-five on having this all planned out; but how much does she remember exactly?"

As for actual numbery system tips, having a MAG of 0 means that the character has no potential for magic at all, and it would be harder to explain in-character-wise going from 0 to 1 than 1 to 2, and would probably have something to do with a plot related event.

Also, if you want to keep the stats evenly balanced as they are, I would recommend giving her at least one magic skill so that the 1 point in MAG and the 40 MP don't go to waste. With that low Magic Attack, you'll probably want that skill to be something non-offensive like Benediction or Healing Magic so that you don't have to contend with anybody's Magic Block.

If you do want to specialize her, though, I personally would recommend shaving one point each from WIS, DEX, STA, and MAG, then distributing these points between COU, INT, AGI, and STR as you see fit. This will bring her AT/PA up to 15/15, which is pretty decent, and will open up a few options:

If you want to keep her TP from decreasing, add one of these points to COU. If you want to keep her number of skill points from decreasing, add one of these points to INT.

Adding points to COU will increase her TP by 3 per each point added, her Initiative by 1/2 point per each point added, and her Magic Block by 2 per each point added. Adding points to INT will increase her Magic Block and Missile Evasion by 1 per each point added and her number of skill points by 2 per each point added. Adding points to AGI will increase her Initiative by 1 per each point added and her Missile Evasion by 2 per each point added. Adding points to STR will increase the amount of damage done by her physical attacks and allow her to use heavier equipment. And finally, increasing any stat will improve the effectiveness of any skill that uses it as a base stat.

Given that she is both a merchant and a trained sword user, I would recommend putting most or all of the 4 points into INT. The reason for this is that INT would be a useful skill for merchants and sword users alike and seems to appear fairly often as a base stat in Edith's list of skills, so it would make sense that she would have developed it. Alternatively, there would also be merit to distributing the 4 points evenly between the 4 stats, as that would allow her to still remain pretty balanced.

On the other hand, if you want her to be able to learn magic at any point in the future, you'll need to leave that point on MAG. In that case, you could take a point out of CHA without being criticized (you could normally take CHA down as far as -2 and get away with it, though that would damage her competence as a merchant and leave her at a social disadvantage even if she succeeds in communicating), or you could just take 3 points to redistribute instead of 4.

I've been talking with Brian, and apparently I misunderstood exactly what should be required of characters increasing their MAG. It is increasable in-system the same way other stats are, but unlike increasing most stats, it does require an in-world explanation.

I also agree with Zero that it is or should be more difficult to increase MAG from 0 to 1 than from 1 to 2. If you want to keep that point in there so that you can potentially have an easier time justifying a MAG increase later on, that's okay. That's your call as the player to make, and you've got the right to make it however you wish. Just be aware that the point of MAG won't be doing you much good until then.

Also, and this is of slightly more immediate relevance, if this character is intended to be a mage someday, be aware that she does not have any skill ranks in any school of magic. She is effectively not using her MAG right now, and will be at least four skill ranks behind any real, focused mage in any magic school that she learns after first level. Since she can only spend two skill points on any one skill after first level, she will have one heck of a time catching up.

If you intend for her to be a mage, I would advise giving her some skill with magic. If you do not intend for her to be a mage, I would advise moving that point out of MAG.

I'm not disagreeing with Kai, but you don't really have to have any practical reason for keeping that point in MAG. It could just be used to represent that she has some kind of minor magical potential whether it will ever be utilized or not.

Also, I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being some way for mages to lend their MP to the casting of other mages' spells. I'll need someone to confirm me on that, but if it's the case, then that 40 MP and the potential ability to cast magic wouldn't be totally useless.

It's the Collaberation technique, which is close to the bottom under the "Simple Standardized Techs" heading.

Of course, I wouldn't count on Edith ever actually participating in the use of that technique, so it's probably not really an important consideration. Still, both sides of the question do deserve their fair representation.